ucanews.com reporter, Nanchang
Updated: November 01, 2010 09:33 AM GMTThe new coadjutor bishop of Nanchang diocese in Jiangxi province, southeastern China, seeks to unite the open and underground communities of the local Church to further growth. “I would actively get in touch with (underground community’s) clergy. We are one family and I hope to achieve reconciliation,” said Father John Baptist Li Suguang, who was welcomed by Nanchang diocese through an ordination Mass on Oct. 31. Bishop Li said the open community did not have much contact with the underground community, whose center is at Yujiang diocese led by 90-year-old Bishop Thomas Zeng Jingmu. The open Church authority merged Nanchang, Yujiang and three other dioceses to form Jiangxi diocese in 1985. Currently, both open and underground communities each have about 40 priests serving 100,000 Catholics in the province. About 1,000 Catholics attended the ordination Mass held at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Nanchang. The mass was celebrated by Bishop Joseph Li Shan of Beijing, the new bishop’s seminary classmate, with co-ordainers Bishops Joseph Shen Bin of Haimen, Joseph Zhao Fengchang of Liaocheng (Yanggu) and the 89-year-old ailing Bishop John Wu Shizhen of Nanchang. Bishop Li vowed to follow the vision of Jesuit missioner Father Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), who was believed to have introduced Catholicism to Jiangxi in 1595. The new bishop aims to accelerate the local Church’s development by promoting evangelization and formation of priests and laity. Bishop Li was born in 1965 in Shanxi province, northern China. He studied at the Beijing Diocesan Seminary and was ordained a priest in 1992. Prior to Nanchang, he had served in Shanxi and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He was later appointed vicar general and unanimously elected as bishop candidate in 2009. Related reports Farms and churches hit by China flooding New Chinese bishop pledges loyalty to Pope Haimen bishop ordained with papal mandate Church-run hotel struggles to support diocese CH11782.1626